Jeff Poor

During a 34-minute discussion on HuffPost Live about race and television news, ex-CNN pundit Roland Martin took some parting shots at his former bosses and suggested that racism stunted his advancement at the network.

“You have largely white male executives who are not necessarily enamored with the idea of having strong, confident minorities who say, ‘I can do this,’” Martin said. “We deliver, but we never get the big piece, the larger salary – to be able to get from here to there.”

Martin pointed to his past successes on the network and questioned why he had never been given the opportunity to host his own program.

“If it’s a ratings game, and we won, how is it I never got a show?” he asked.

However, as Newsbusters’ Noel Sheppard pointed out, CNN does have at least one prominent black host: Don Lemon, who hosts weekends.